[The Press Office has received the following from Joyanna "Sadie" Zacher and Nathan "Exile" Block, unrepentant eco-warriors convicted for the arsons of a SUV dealership and a genetic engineering tree farm in Oregon under the banner of ELF. Betrayed by all but 2 of their co-defendants, both are currently serving 7 years 8 months and are scheduled for release in 2012. To find out more, including how to write these courageous warriors, visit www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/prisoners.htm

first epistle: phoenix from the flames(from prison, by Sadie and Exile)

Now that we have been sentenced we have the opportunity to ease our reticence concerning our situation and would like to candidly address a few points.

Firstly, we would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has offered support and solidarity with us since we were kidnapped by the state and held prisoner for these past sixteen months. To each and every individual who has offered material support through monetary, postal or other means and also to those who through their voice or in their hearts have stood in alignment with us, and in opposition to cooperation with or apology to the state- we would extend a most honest thanks. Your flame burns bright.

It has been extremely heartening to know that there are those who stand with us when it seems that so many whose strength we once considered unassailable have had their roots dislodged and their honor torn asunder. Those who hear the call of Direct Action should not fear the prospect of imprisonment if those, or those similar to, who have supported us continue to act in such a responsible and dignified manner in support and solidarity with those of us who have attracted the wrath of the state. Again, a great thanks to all who have assisted us and continue to do so.

That said, it has come to our attention that, perhaps through naivete and perhaps through deliberate spreading of misinformation, there has been some confusion over who amongst the indictees is worthy of prisoner support; meaning to us: who has NOT made statements implicating others, as the purpose of such statements is the further prosecution and imprisonment of others. Let us make this clear: all those amongst the indictees who have been apprehended, other than Ms. Waters, Mr. McGowan, Mr. Paul, obviously the authors of this piece, the so-called Ms. Zacher and Mr. Block, and sadly Mr. Rodgers, have dishonored themselves,
their families and the very lineage of struggle of which they themselves were once an integral part, by becoming vicious traitors and handmaids of the state. To actively support those indictees who have been apprehended but not aforementioned is to support not only our incarceration but to wish that same fate upon many others currently living as fugitives or being sought similarly. If there are those amongst you reading this who feel the need to make excuses for those responsible for our imprisonment, we would ask you to refrain from offering a janus-faced "support" to us also, as it is completely antithetical to the reasons for our captivity.

Those who have signed their cowardly allegiance to the state, and through the state to those powers that seek to prostitute and obliterate the natural world, as well as stripmine our souls, clearcut our minds and pollute our very being, are not only directly responsible for our imprisonment, having given the state our physical descriptions, names and legal names along with statements on our involvement in Direct Action, both witnessed and in conjecture.

No, they hold not only that burden of responsibility. Some of them hold responsibility, and the others a deep dishonor, for the death of a dear friend and one of the most gentle and pure-hearted beings ever to be found, namely Avalon (or Bill Rodgers).

Most importantly, those who now work in collaboration (under the innocuous term "cooperation") with the same powers which they once felt compelled to raise themselves in opposition to, have, in their wicked apostasy, desecrated the sacred covenant that exists between Nature and those who align themselves with the very Element of Fire and the very Essence of Destruction in the defense of the Wild.

Perhaps these vile turncoats deserve compassion, in the same way that all creatures deserve compassion, and indeed they once deserved acclaim for their physical deeds, but now they deserve neither praise nor forgiveness, for in the hour when the struggle returned for them, when the predator had once again become the prey, they failed in spirit and resolve, cowardly breaking long-held oaths and begging for mercy from their captors, hoping to gain leniency by offering, as a sacrifice to the altar of a perverted "justice" their former friends, trusted colleagues and any dignity they once held.

Let the spirits of imprisonment, treason and weak delusion haunt the atrophied vision of those who would turn their backs to the flame of Green Fire that burns in all beings; and let those of us who heed the calls so often ignored stand upright, with clear vision, whether illuminated by the great Sun or by a more obscure Light, which rides with the night terrors with all creatures of the hidden hours: the clawed, the winged, the hoofed, and also with those beings referred to by the euphemisms of "the ancestors", "the fair folk", or indeed, "the elves".

"When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that she will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a person saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath she is going to tell you what she won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A person who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire...or preserve his freedom."-- Malcolm X